TVC 6 to 12
by skycloud86
Summary: When you die, brain activity can be detected for up to 6-12 minutes. The 24 characters face their own 12 minute afterlife.
1. Prologue

_**A/N – The title of this fanfiction refers to the theory that brain activity can occur for as long as 6-12 minutes after death. Each chapter will focus on a different character.**_

When you die, some people believe in an Afterlife, where you might be judged by a god, or be reincarnated according to how you lived your life on Earth. Some people don't believe in anything after death.

When you die, you leave behind people who love you, people who loved you. People who hate you, people who hated you, and everyone else.

When you die, it affects people, events, even history and maybe even society. Your death might be the cause of a war, or the beginning of a new era of peace.

When you die, your brain activity can last a little while longer, sometimes up to 6-12 minutes. It's not a long afterlife, but it's an afterlife.

6 to 12 minutes to reflect, to wonder, to think before oblivion.


	2. Jamey Farrell

"We're losing her!," the doctor yelled as she rushed frantically around. Their patient, Jamey Farrell, was a young woman – a young mother – who had tried to commit suicide at her workplace. No one at the hospital knew why, or had stopped to contemplate why she would try to take her own life.

"She's lost too much blood," a nurse called out whilst desperately trying to attach a new bag of blood to the IV in the hope that they could save the young woman.

"Where's the crash cart?," the doctor shouted, as she manually performed CPR on Jamey, but it was too late. The small group of doctors and nurses assembled around the bed were silent. It always hurt to lose a patient, but when that patient was young, when that patient was a parent or a child, the pain was unbearable.

_Jamey groaned as she felt the pain in her wrists. Gently tracing her finger down one of the fresh scars, she noticed that she wasn't in CTU anymore. Looking around, she noticed she was surrounded by people she recognised._

"_Dad?," she spoke, her raw throat making her voice raspy._

"**¿** _Si, mi querida?," he replied, his Mexican accent evident._

"_Where am I?," she asked, but deep down, she already knew._

"_I am not really here, noone is. You have just a few minutes left before your existence must come to an end, Jamey," he replied, and Jamey had to fight hard to stop herself from crying. Although she wasn't the most devout Catholic, she still believed in Heaven and Hell, and to be told that her soul was mortal like the rest of her was devastating. She looked around the small crowd of people, pleading with her eyes for one of them to offer her an alternative. Once she had seen everyone's eyes, she decided not to fight it, hoping that she would at least enjoy the last minutes of blissful conciousness before she faded._

"_I didn't kill myself, I was murdered. Killed by someone I thought of as a friend, a trusted co-worker," she said aloud. She remembered nothing after the taser was pushed into her skin, but she wasn't stupid, she knew that the scars could only have been made after she was knocked out._

"_They will be caught, and punished," an elderly woman, Jamey's grandmother, said. She said this not out of certainty, but because the universe required balance._

"_I will miss my beautiful son, mi amada hijo," she whispered to herself, her eyes wet with tears._

"_Jamey, it is time to go," her father spoke, his voice sorrowful. Jamey looked at him, nodding slowly. She smiled at him as she laid back and closed her eyes. As her eyelids met, the darkness came and Jamey Farrell was no more._


	3. Teri Bauer

Teri Bauer was terrified. It was now glaringly obvious that her supposed friend Nina Myers was the mole, and it was also obvious to her that Nina was not the sweet, kind person she had been acting as all day. She watched as Nina hurried around, sorting out her exfiltration from CTU. Then, she got a feeling of pure horror. Teri wanted to say something, but the duct tape tightly plastered to her mouth made this impossible.

"I'm leaving now, Teri. Someone will find you soon," Nina told her, as if everything was going to be OK. Teri didn't see Nina, or hear the bullet that tore through her organs, through her stomach. A small victory in some way. As everything went dark, Teri decided to think only of Jack and Kim.

_Rubbing her eyes before realising what had just happened, Teri sat up quickly, before placing her hand gently on her stomach. Looking down, she noticed the blood and sighed heavily. She had been looking forward to having a second child, but it had been callously stolen from her and her family._

"_Teri, are you OK?," a kindly woman's voice called. Teri looked at the woman, and recognised her mother, who had died some years ago, and she knew at this point that she was dead. No more second chance, no more of Jack or Kim._

"_No. No, I'm not," Teri said, her eyes still locked on her stomach. A gentle hand cupped her chin and slowly raised her head until she made eye contact with her father. He had died when she was just a teenager, an event which she had never truly gotten over._

"_Jack and Kim will never forget you," he told his daughter. He looked at her and knew that Jack's job had to have something to do with her death. He didn't blame Jack, he never had, but he couldn't help but feel angry._

"_Hey, you feel sleepy?," he asked, and Teri nodded. Her father planted a kiss on her cold forehead gently._

"_Lie down, Teri, and dream," he spoke._


	4. George Mason

George Mason was quietly contemplating the end of his existence in the back of his mind, but this was drowned out by the fear he felt as he flew his nuclear cargo towards the designated ground zero. Taking the plane down, he wondered if he, a rather secular man, should say a prayer.

The end of George's life was signalled by a huge mushroom cloud that was visible for miles around.

_Had the prayer worked? George sat up and found himself in a white room, before realising that there were people stood behind him. Turning around before standing up, he recognised the people – they were his family, or at least the dead ones._

"_I'm so proud of you, George," his mother spoke gently, before embracing him. George felt a solitary tear fall down his cheek, past a smile growing on his face._

"_Is this Heaven?," George asked the crowd, hoping that he had won a place in paradise by his heroic sacrifice. His mother looked up at him._

"_No, George, this isn't Heaven. It might be waiting for you, but this is just your brain, your final moments of conciousness before we all learn the elusive answer to the question of what comes after death," she spoke, and George was confused. He was sure that he was indeed dead, so how could he be concious?_

"_Am I dead?," George asked, even though he knew the answer. Everyone nodded slowly, sadly. Looking down at his mother one last time, he plucked up the courage to accept the inevitable. Suddenly, a white light begin to shine through part of the wall._

"_Your last minutes of conciousness are dwindling, George. I think you know what you have to do," his father spoke. George nodded, and walked slowly towards oblivion._


	5. Nina Myers

Nina was on the floor, pain shooting through her neck and shoulder where stitch and bullet wound hurt like hell. Her vision was blurry, and she knew that either Jack or blood loss could kill her soon – she didn't know which one would be worse. He approached her, towered over her in a show of dominance, of triumph.

He had asked her if she had any more information, and she had told him the truth, that she did, but her subconscious wanted to protect her, and when her arm moved towards the gun, she knew that he was going to murder her. Things were made worse when she realised that she couldn't even touch the gun, never mind use it. Keeping her eyes open in an act of defiance, the last thing she saw was Jack's face. He looked angry, bitter, but also sad and regretful.

_Nina's eyes were closed when she found herself in the last minutes of conciousness. Lifting herself up slowly, she looked around the room, which was white all over. She saw the crowd that had come to meet her, as well as the looks on their faces._

"_I don't know how to explain myself," she told them, sincerely._

"_How do you justify it to yourself, Nina?," her mother spoke._

"_I don't know," Nina replied, and she was being honest. She really didn't know how she had justified the greed, the murders, the crimes. She had not always been like this, and the Nina that had existed at CTU was actually quite like the true Nina, but she had, in a very cliché way, fallen in with a bad crowd. This particular bad crowd weren't drug users or thief, they were terrorists, people who would kill to get what they wanted, no matter who or what._

"_Do you feel regret?," her father asked. He wondered why his daughter had gone from an intelligent young woman to a mass murderer._

"_Yes, I do," Nina spoke, meaning her words just like she had meant them when she had uttered them to Jack just before her murder._

"_Then you're ready to go, Nina," her mother replied, and the faces of the crowd wore pride and love instead of confusion and disappointment._

_Nina saw the light and took a few, slow steps towards it. She wondered what was on the other side, and wondered if it would be what she deserved._


	6. Gael Ortega

Gael Ortega coughed violently as he waited for the end. He could have killed himself with a gun graciously offered to him by Michelle, but he had stood by his Catholic faith and it's view that all life was sacred.

Collapsing onto the floor, Gael took one last breath as the virus finished him off. He managed to say a quick prayer in Spanish before his heart stopped.

_Gael was confused when he saw the white room he was in. He was a Christian, and therefore he believed in Heaven and Hell, but this was just a room. Turning around, he was surprised to see family members who had died long ago. Embracing his mother, he thanked god for the chance to see his loved ones._

"_Where is this place?," Gael spoke in Spanish to his mother._

"_Your final moments, Gael. After this time had passed, who knows what will come next?," she replied, much to Gael's confusion._

"_My final moments? This isn't Heaven?," he asked, unsure of what was going on. If this wasn't Heaven or Hell, what was it? Limbo? Purgatory?_

"_No, Gael. This is the few minutes after death that your brain continues to harbour activity. Once these moments are up, who knows what will happen?," she replied to an even more confused Gael._

"_Then why are you here? Are you just imaginary?," Gael queried, wondering just how many minutes he had left._

"_Yes, we are. These moments are for a final period of reflection, Gael. Your life was one of devout faith to God and country, and now you must find out what happens after death," his mother responded._

_As Gael wandered into the light, he spoke the same Spanish prayer he had whispered to himself back in the hotel. A small part of him was worried that there was nothing else, and he hoped that it was wrong._


	7. Dina Araz

She almost felt as if she deserved it. She had tried to trick Marwan, and as two of his henchmen dragged her into a smaller room, she hoped that her son was safe. She cursed her husband for getting her family into this mess, and she cursed Marwan for everything he had done.

To Dina's relief, death came quickly and she didn't have to suffer from the pain for too long. The last thing she thought of was her son. She regretted the things she had done to him, and to Debbie.

_The white room that Dina found herself in was sharply different to the room she had died in. Noticing her dead loved ones looking at her, she felt shame. It was obvious to her that she had allowed her life to be a vehicle for hate and murder._

"_Dina, why did you go along with Navi's plans?," her father asked in Turkish. He looked at her with sad eyes, and Dina knew that he trying hard not to cry._

"_I'm sorry father. I know I should have taken Behrooz and run away from him. I had chances to, but I didn't," she replied, even more regretful of her life now that she realised that her family had been watching over her._

"_We're not your family, Dina. We're your imagination," her mother spoke, answering the question Dina had not said. She looked at the crowd with confusion._

"_Soon, your conciousness will cease to exist, Dina. Whatever happens then is a mystery, one only those who are dead and cannot come back will unravel," her grandfather spoke, and she nodded her head. It was obvious to her that she was about to be judged by the universe, and could only hope that, if there was an afterlife, that it would be merciful._


	8. David Palmer

It had been a peaceful morning, one with a relaxed mood. David Palmer was enjoying the early morning scenery from high above Los Angeles when the shot pierced the window and his neck. Falling backwards, the last thing he heard was his brother. The last thing he saw was the ceiling of the apartment.

As former President David Palmer's life slipped away, his brother was horrified, and hoping that something could be done. The sniper, however, was a good shot and his one bullet had fatally wounded David.

_Rubbing his neck as he sat up, he wondered where he was. The smart apartment had been replaced by a room that was totally white. Surprised by the crowd of people stood behind him, he could only guess what was going on._

"_It's good to see you again, David," Sherry spoke. He looked at her with confusion. It had been some years since she had been murdered by the suicidal Julia Milliken, and if he was honest with himself, he had missed her._

"_What is this place?," he asked. He wasn't a doctor, but he knew that his wound was fatal._

"_Your imagination, David. Or, if you prefer, what your subconscious shows you before your brain catches up with the rest of your body," his father told him, and David understood. He looked around the room, at all the different faces. Having known so many people who had lost a loved one in tragic circumstances, he hoped that they too would experience this reunion after their deaths._

"_I suppose there is nothing more to say or do, is there?," David asked. His mother nodded, and she pointed towards the white light that was growing larger. He took a deep breath and strode towards it, ready to face the reality of what came after death._


	9. Michelle Dessler

She hadn't expected to go back to CTU any time soon, but Michelle Dessler was adamant after the shocking death of President Palmer that she would help in any way she could to find the people responsible. Tony had been reluctant to join her, but she knew him well and he soon joined her outside as she walked towards the car.

What had been a quiet suburban road on a sunny morning was turned into a scene from a battleground as the car exploded, sending Michelle and Tony flying. Both of them landed on the driveway injured, but only Tony managed to stay concious. He realised that Michelle was unconsciousness and desperately tried to revive her, before he too was knocked out by his injuries.

_Michelle was shocked when she woke up in the white room. She tried to work out what had just happened, and a flashback came to her. A car exploded, and she had lost Tony, or so she had thought at the time. Holding back tears, she realised that it wasn't the same explosion, that they had both been caught up in a car bomb. She looked around for Tony, but found only long-dead relatives._

"_What happened to Tony?," she asked, but noone could give her a satisfactory answer._

"_We don't know, Michelle, we only know what you know," her mother spoke as she embraced her daughter._

"_Where am I?," Michelle spoke, her voice breaking._

"_In the last few minutes you'll ever know of in this life," her father answered, and Michelle knew what he meant. She knew that brain activity could be detected for a few minutes after death. She also knew that this meant she was dead._

"_I'll miss him just as much as I miss all of you," she spoke sadly. Noticing the white light, she walked towards it, hoping for something else on the other side._


	10. Larry Moss

_**A/N – This will be the last chapter for now until the end of Season Eight next year.**_

He had been shot twice in the chest and now he was lying on the cold ground, staring at Galvez and Tony. He could only hope that Tony would be able to get Galvez and call for help soon, and he felt shit. Trying to give Tony his gun, Tony refused it, much to Larry's wonder. It was only when Galvez lowered his gun that he knew what was going on. Staring straight at Tony, he saw regret already forming in his dark eyes – Larry could only guess at how genuine it was.

As Tony's hand covered his blood-filled mouth and nostrils, he fought hard not to let Tony kill him, but he was already far too weak to put up a real fight. Losing conciousness, his last thoughts were of Renee. He knew that he would miss her.

_Sitting up slowly, Larry coughed a couple of times, before realising that he was no longer outside, nor was Tony or Galvez anywhere to be seen. He was shocked to see the crowd of people there with him in the bright room, but overjoyed to see his parents, who had been dead for many years._

"_Mom? Dad?," Larry spoke to them as he walked towards them._

"_Hello, son," his father spoke as the three embraced each other._

"_Where are we?," Larry asked, curious and bewildered by how he had managed to get from the place where he had been to this strange room._

"_The end of your existence," his mother replied, much to his shock and confusion._

"_You're already dead, son, but for the next couple of minutes, your brain will have a faint trace of activity. That activity is your imagination, where we are right now," his father spoke._

"_If this is my imagination, then why would I imagine such a place?" Larry asked, getting more confused._

"_You're dead, Larry. Your imagination is not controlled by you anymore and soon, it will fall into oblivion like the rest of you. Or it might go on into an afterlife with you, I don't know the answer of what lies beyond death," his mother replied._

"_See the light, Larry? I'm sure you know what it is," his father spoke quietly as he pointed to a bright spot of light that was growing on one of the walls._

"_Goodbye," Larry spoke to the crowd, and began to walk towards the light._

_As Larry walked into the light, he felt at peace, and as he felt at peace, the room and his self ceased to exist._


End file.
